


Nemesism

by Anarkanex



Category: Original Work, gaming - Fandom, mark fischbach - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Mark Fischbach, Alternate Markiplier, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Future, Drug Use, Dystopia, Engineer Mark Fischbach, F/M, Future, Future Fic, Future Mark Fischbach, Future Markiplier, Mark Fischbach - Freeform, Markiplier - Freeform, Original work - Freeform, Revenge, Revolution, Sci-Fi, barcode, ik i write too many fics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-09-30 06:22:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10156085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarkanex/pseuds/Anarkanex
Summary: The year is 2533. Operation Sigma has ultimately been a success - for the most part. After a malfunction in the orbital path of twelve sustainment shuttles, League 0 was thrust head-first into the foreign, wild terrains of the planet dubbed Dracarus. Four generations later, League III is fighting desperately to hold onto the bits of a nation they've managed to establish, but there's one problem: outside, seemingly foreign invaders, who both look and act as though they, too, are from Earth. The real question remains...where did they come from, and what is their end goal?





	1. Prologue

**January 21st, 2338**

_CNSA...revealed its latest discovery...Sigma...neighboring...satellites have provided grainy...twelve-planet orbit...deployment of drones and...be expected.  
_

 

**March 3rd, 2355**

_Nochan...findings to the UN...international crisis...  
_

 

There was something oddly perturbing about staring into the face of the void; not the promise of death, nor the impending destruction of the one thing keeping him between life and said promise of death. No, this was a space void. A deep, empty blackness that both amazed and disturbed every fiber of his being. He'd always admired it, in some boyish, naive way. 

He was cold. This much, he could feel in what nerve endings remained in his fingers and toes. He was also constricted, tied down by some force he could not see. When he tried to move his head, it wouldn't budge, nor would his limbs wiggle or his eyes open. He felt suspended, like zero gravity. Floating, possibly?

No, that wasn't possible. He shouldn't be here. _But where is here?_ a despondent voice in his head whispered at him, urging his eyes to open. They would not.

Fleeting images and traces of words he had not heard in a long time flickered through the nerve endings in his head, sending a cacophony of sound firing rapidly towards his eardrums. It was not exterior sound, no. On the outside, it was only silence. In the time he'd spent suspended, hoping to gaze upon his demise, his only comfort was what little, blurry traces he could remember.

He didn't really remember anything.

Why did his limbs feel so heavy?

_Maybe you're dreaming. You've always had those weird space dreams, you know-_

Another cacophony of sound fired at him, only this time, it exploded through his head like a bullet. It was white searing pain; it was a knife wound in his brain stem; it was death, surely. His legs were burning. He could not feel his arms. His head felt wet. _Is this death?_

 _No,_ the despondent voice uttered, _no._

More sound, from the outside. Ringing. Loud, high-pitched ringing, and crackling...like a...like a...what was the word? The orange flower that lived but that it may consume, anything and everything. _Fire._ Yes, there was fire. He felt the heat on his skin, heard the air sizzling over the ringing. His head hurt.

His eyes still would not open. His limbs were not hot anymore. Was his head still wet? _No, the fire has robbed me of that, too._ He suddenly felt very heavy, as if the void he'd laid witness to only moments ago were lulling him to sleep, calling him back to swaddle him in a sea of stars.

_This is death, surely._

The voice was persistent. _No!_ It hissed, sounding oddly pleased. _No!_

**March 14th, 2335  
**

_Researchers...Yellowstone...similar activity...mysterious...disappearances...the animals are fleeing.  
_

**November 19th, 2360**

_Generation 0...estimated...not return...international number...per day...increased by 31%.  
_


	2. Grutya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There has been a sudden increase in unidentified organisms moving in the Northeastern quarter, which began with the mysterious spark of electric activity in Sector 83. Researchers are baffled, and the city guards are becoming uneasy. So Y/N and Ani, two of the head scouts from their Section, are sent off the track it down.

"Where's Chaz?" (Y/N) slumped down onto the couch, allowing her head to roll back and rest, exhausted, against the cushions. Her bag fell limp at her feet, its contents spilling out onto the floor. Cursing under her breath, she bent to gather her things, a brow cocked up at her mother. "I thought he was off today."

"He was, but with the fire, they needed extra hands." Her mother said, shrugging. She grabbed for a pot on the the pan above the fire, two bowls already set aside on the counter. 

"Oh, I'm not gonna stay for lunch," (Y/N) said cautiously, hoping her mother wouldn't look into it too much.

The older woman raised her eyebrows, a hand sitting defiantly on her hip bone. "And why not?"

(Y/N) shrugged. "Duty calls."

"Duty?" Her mom laughed. "I wouldn't call whatever mess you and Ani get up to  _duty._ " Nevertheless, she put one of the bowls away, a thin smile settling on her plump lips. In her age, her mother was actually very pretty; she had that strong, kind look to her, and more often than not, her cheeks were dimpled with the remnants of a smile. Her eyes were a bright green, a pretty golden-flecked color, that shined every time she looked at someone. Her hair, which she had recently cut, was usually pulled back into a working ponytail. It flowed, chestnut, down the vertebrae on the back of her neck, kissing her shoulder-blades. 

"We do the work no one else wants to do," (Y/N) muttered, defensive. Given,  _she_ wanted to do it, but that wasn't relevant. "Besides, if we don't get it done today, we're going to have to wait until Ani gets back from Morphenus. I don't want to get screwed out of my bonus."

Her mom laughed, shaking her head. "I'm not forcing you to stay, (Y/N). You're a grown woman." Even as (Y/N) was sitting upright and collecting her stuff, her mother continued smiling, adding, "Thanks for stopping by to see me. You'll have to come back tomorrow. I'm sure Chaz wants to see you."

"Yeah, I'll have to see how the scouting goes. I might be by around dinner time." She flashed her mother one final grin and head out the door, her pack already slung over her shoulder. It was old and worn, fashioned from the skin of an old _dhenu._ (Y/N) wasn't a huge fan of hunting, so most animal-based things she owned were collected from animals that had died of natural causes, or things harvested without any pain. Sure, she wasn't a vegetarian by any means, but that didn't mean she had to be some kind of blood-thirsty slayer.

Ani was waiting at the end of the street, already decked out in her scouting gear. She had her pistol strapped to her right thigh and her sack strung securely across her back, angled to the right for easy access. (Y/N) smiled and waved, jogging a little to catch up with her.

"So," (Y/N) said, tucking her hands into her pockets, "Where are we scouting today?"

"We have to take the Northeastern quarter. Apparently the rangers have been seeing some weird shit out there." Ani said it abruptly, as was her way, and tucked a strand of choppy, jet-black hair behind her ear. Her eyes were ahead, on the road, already searching for any threats.

"Weird shit?" This was the first (Y/N) had heard of it. "Like what?"

"Unidentified." Ani's voice was a sharp staccato. She rarely wasted her breath on fancy words or small talk. "Uuencoded."

"It doesn't have a code?" (Y/N) was incredulous. "New species, maybe?"

"Maybe. Zip it." Ani jerked her head in the direction of Gate 6, already rolling up the sleeve of her jacket to reveal the small black barcode tattooed on her wrist. Three _Rakskro_ stood by the gate, their arms crossed and guns strapped dutifully around their shoulders. One stepped forward, the Captain, and held out a small list of numbers to cross-check her barcode.

He seemed to settle his suspicion quickly, and allowed her through, motioning for (Y/N) to step forward. She did as Ani had, revealing her own black ink on the flat, tender surface of her left wrist, and waited patiently for him to pass her through as well. For a moment, it seemed as though he was going to say something, but he simply waved at her and stepped out of the way. "When is your expected return?"

"Whenever we walk through the Gate again, Captain." Ani saluted him sarcastically and grabbed for (Y/N)'s arm, pulling her along.

With a huff, the guards shut the gate behind them, effectively sealing them out of the city and into the overgrown wilderness that surrounded it. "Are there any details on the unidentified... _thing_?" (Y/N) asked, turning to Ani with curiosity written plainly on her face. "I mean, do they have any idea what it might have been?"

"There's a few ideas, but they're all ridiculous."

"Like what?"

Ani sighed, kicking a rock. "Well, one researcher - if you can even call him that - from Section 12 thought it might be a _rhatuva._ He swore he saw the thing with his own eyes. Claimed it was 12 feet tall at full height, or some shit."

(Y/N) laughed. "A _rhatuva,_ huh? Wow, who knew? Right under our noses, all this time." It was especially ironic considering the things didn't even exist; only recently had the linguists been deciphering texts from the old world such as these, old lore stories and myths about creatures that used to roam the hills. Claiming that a creature - which had been merely a myth on its home planet - was here? No, not possible. "What are the other ones?"

"You know, the usual. Another mutation, some sort of hybrid. Oh, and my personal favorite, one woman from Section 1-"

"Section 1? This ought to be good."

Ani was laughing. "She thinks it's a _grutya._ "

(Y/N) stopped walking. "A _grutya._ As in a pre-League 0 _grutya_? Like a walking, talking, oxygen-breathing _person_?"

"One and the same. Ridiculous, I know." Ani shook her head, smiling smugly. "I swear, none of these 'scientists' know that the hell they're talking about. I just scout the woods and I'm still sure I could do a better job."

"Maybe she's right." (Y/N) barely got the words out before Ani looked at her, the two of them trying not to smile. It was a selfish effort, and it wasn't long before the two of them broke out into short, breathy chuckles. "So that's what we're after? That's the big surprise?"

"That would be it," Ani murmured, grinning wickedly. She pulled out the machete sheathed at her left hip and swirled it around in her fingers, looking more animal than human. "Ready to go hunt a monster?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

 


	3. Hi!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Y/N) and Ani finally track the disturbance and trap him in a hole under a log. (Y/N) goes in to investigate, and to their disbelief, they discover that this 'creature' is, in fact, a human. Not only this, but he doesn't seem to have any grasp of their language, so who the hell is he?

He had been hiding for hours. Tucked into a hole barely larger than his body mass, wedged under the fallen trunk of a tree that somehow had landed at just the right angle, presenting itself to him like a huge, flashing beacon of hope. So here he was, unsure of where he was, unsure of who he was, even unsure of  _when_ he was. His vision was a little buggy, and he couldn't remember anything besides his name and little snippets of sound and visuals that, as of right now, didn't make any sense. 

**August 5th, 2338**

_...using revolutionary technology that allows the shuttle...faster than ever before...reach within ten years..._

He knew that someone was following him. To assume it was only one person was naive, and to assume why was even more so. He had no idea where he was, who was after him, and he sure as hell couldn't guess what he'd done to offend them. As of right now, the only place familiar to him was the mess of metal and withered scraps he'd woken up in, suspended in one of the fattest and most oddly-colored trees he'd ever seen. The bark, which to him, was supposed to be some shade of brown, was more of a blue gray color, and the leaves were an odd shade of light green, not quite sea-foam but not quite blue. They had seemed almost bio-luminescent to him at first, and it was only later that he realized it was because they were - at least partially - translucent, allowing the sun to shine through them like a prism. 

He'd become aware that he was being tracked a few hours ago - at least he  _thought_ it was a few hours ago. His watch wasn't working, and the metal coffin he'd been in was almost completely destroyed. He'd fiddled with it for a little while, back when his head was still gushing blood and he couldn't really feel his legs, but it was a hopeless effort. No amount of time spent in one of the best engineering programs in the country could help him piece together a fried machine. 

His head was pounding again. It happened every few hours, like clockwork; a sudden explosion of blinding, white-hot pain, pushing out against his skull as if trying to free itself. He was sure he had suffered some form of concussion, to say the least, but he was dealing. Well, as best as he could.

There were voices, off to the left. _"Did you see him?"_   _A girl._ He shrunk further back into the hole, clutching the knife he'd scavenged tightly in his fist. If good for nothing else, the wreckage he called home had offered him a few useful materials - not many had survived, though. 

_"How do you even know it's a male? All I saw was a shadow and some half-worn tracks. I think it's been sticking to this quarter, though."_

_"I just feel like it is."_ That was the first voice again. Much softer than the second, it was filled with some hopeful emotion he couldn't place. It was alarming to him to think that they might be taking joy in hunting him. _"He must be holing up somewhere nearby. His tracks don't go very far."_

 _So there's two of them?_ He thought, chewing nervously on his lip. It was with an alarming sense of clarity that Mark realized he had no idea what they were saying. 

 _"It just doesn't make any sense. Obviously this thing is smart, judging by the stock-pile of materials we found buried behind that boulder, a ways back. Animals don't fashion weapons."_ The second voice was more guttural, choppy. From what he could tell, both of them were females, but he wasn't about to test his luck. For all he knew, they could be world class martial-arts enthusiasts, or assassins.  _You're an idiot._

_"You don't think-"_

_"No, I don't think that Section 1 idiot was right, but-"_

_"Hey."_ The softer voice had gotten even quieter now, as if trying to encourage the other to stop talking. It seemed to work, as her words were followed by an eerie silence. It hung in the air, somehow heavier than the gravity of his situation. He wasn't sure what her abrupt end to the conversation meant, but he didn't think it was good. _"See that?"_ She whispered. 

He didn't dare peek out from his hiding spot. It had taken him a while to position himself in a way that he wasn't easily spotted, and he had no idea what revealing himself could mean.  _Snap._ A twig, off to the left. They sounded much closer than before, and he was becoming increasingly sure that they could hear his ragged, nervous breathing. 

 _"Come on out."_ It was the soft, maybe only feet away from the hole. _"We aren't going to hurt you."_ Despite how gentle she sounding, as if coaxing a child, Mark was terrified. Not only could he not understand a word they were saying, he felt as though he had no hope of figuring it out, either. It wasn't just a different dialect, or a heavy accent; they were speaking a  _completely_ different language. 

 _"(Y/N), whatever this thing is, I seriously doubt it's going to understand you. Animals don't speak Saeri."_ The choppy voice was closer now, too, but she seemed further than the soft voice. 

 _"Neither do the people from Marconus. Besides, we don't know that it's an animal."_ The soft voice sounded defiant now, as if she were arguing with a parent. _"If it_ is _a Groupie, then-"_

 _"It is_  not _a Groupie, (Y/N). You know the stories, okay? All of the Grutyas are dead. I think we would know by now if the opposite was true."_

 _"Unless something happened."_ The softer voice was alarming close now. Breathing heavily, Mark tried to shrink further back into the hole, but his back was already pressed firmly against the dirt. It almost sounded like the was at the opening of the crevice, peering down with curious eyes, hoping to spot him. 

_"You're hopeless."_

He could see a shadow now, climbing down into his hiding place. She was gripping something in her hand, some sort of light - it didn't look like a...what was the word... _flashlight._ No, it looked older, like a lamp? There wasn't a flame, but it definitely wasn't a bulb. It almost looked like a trapped light source - some futuristic lantern you might see in a Sci-fi movie. 

 _"It's okay,"_ She whispered, her foreign words wrapping themselves around him like a blanket. His fingers gripped desperately at the roots above his head, feeling around for some sort of escape, some tunnel he'd missed.  _"It's okay."_

Whatever she was saying, she repeated it over and over again, creeping down into the hole like some sort of graceful predator. He couldn't make out her features, due to the light at her back and the spots in his vision, but he could tell that she was, in fact, a woman. 

His tongue betrayed him. "Leave me alone." The second the words left his mouth, she froze, her posture giving off a vibe he wasn't sure would go in his favor.  _She looks scared._

* * *

 

"(Y/N)," Ani hissed, watching the younger girl creep into the hole with a ferocious, protective expression on her face. "Stop, it might attack you."

But (Y/N) wasn't listening. She was frozen, staring down into the darkness with surprise and terror etched into her otherwise kind features. Ani grabbed the back of her jacket, pulling her out of the hole and setting her down - albeit roughly - on the dirt. "What?" Ani asked, shaking her shoulder gently. "What happened?"

"Um," (Y/N) murmured, looking over at the hole. "He, uh...He-"

"(Y/N)." Ani's voice was stern. She looked as though she'd seen a ghost.

"I think he just spoke to me," The younger girl replied, pulling herself to her feet. "Ani, he said something."

Ani felt her veins freeze. "What?" She stood abruptly, already clutching the worn, leather-bound handle of her machete. "What did he say?"

"I'm not sure." (Y/N) said it simply, jutting out her bottom lip as would a petulant child, her eyes fixated on the hole from whence she'd come. Something about the way he'd said it - whatever  _it_ was - had stuck with her, like a shadow wrapping its hungry claws around her brain, feasting on the doubt harbored there. "It wasn't  _Saeri."_

"Then what the fuck was it?" Ani asked, kicking a rock by the toe of her boot. She was getting angry, (Y/N) could tell, but it wasn't out of frustration, she thought. Ani was just that way; any time she wasn't in control of the situation, whenever she was feeling isolated, or taken advantage of, this was her response. Not quite angry, perhaps, but...defensive. Like a cornered animal. (Y/N) thought of Ani as more animal than human sometimes.

"Nothing I've heard." It was then that (Y/N) pulled the small device from her pocket, fumbling with its bulky surface before pressing the release, allowing a small, black panel to pop up on its head. The screen powered to life - it was a dull green color - and up popped little black dots, two of which, according to the map, were her and Ani. It was a coder; its only purpose was to show any encoded organisms nearby. Each type of creature was a different color - blue for animals, black for humans, red for plant life. Foreign objects were green, and objects, like transport, were yellow. Items or organisms without codes wouldn't show up at all. She looked carefully, locating the spot on the map where he was, feet in front of them, but there was nothing. "There's not a dot here. They were right - he doesn't have a barcode." 

"I don't like where this is going." Ani was pacing now, a calloused hand brushing anxiously at her bottom lip. Her choppy bangs had fallen, flowing across her thick brows with some sort of fallen angel grace, framing her face in one of the harshest - though still flattering - ways. Her eyes were a bright hazel green, with flecks of gold - and in one spot, blue - around the pupil. She really was very pretty, but (Y/N) couldn't have confidently said when the last time someone had taken interest in her was. She was harsh, closed off, intimidating. People, men especially, avoided her. "Did you get a good glimpse of it?"

"No, but he's gotta be...," (Y/N) trailed off. "I mean, he  _has_ to be a person, right? Animals don't have language."

"Yes they do. In their own way. Are you sure it didn't just growl at you?"

"No, Ani. He said words. Clear as day." (Y/N) chewed on this thought for only a moment longer, deciding then and there what her new plan was. "Come on." With that, she pushed herself to her feet, brushing off the dirty fabric of her pants and jacket. The dirt out here was distastefully wet due to the heavy rain, and she wasn't such a fan of coming home covered in grime. 

"Where are we going?" Ani was incredulous. "You mean to tell me that we tracked the damn thing for  _hours,_ and now we actually  _have_ it in our grasp, and you want to leave?"

"Not leave." (Y/N) sighed, motioning for a tree just over the log, no more than fifteen feet away. "Wait." If they were silent for long enough, surely he would come out, right? "Besides, I don't want to charge in if I don't even know what I'm up against." Before Ani could protest, she said, "-And I'm not letting you do it either."

"Fine." Ani put her machete away, throwing her hands up in some show of exasperation, but (Y/N) knew she didn't mean it. Ani was a cool thinker, an observer, and as hot-headed as she might act outwardly, she'd have decided the same had their roles been reversed. 

And so they did, for what felt like an hour. After about twenty minutes, Ani had grown tired of peering around the tree like a scared child and had climbed up instead, settling on a long, thick branch a few feet above (Y/N)'s head. It was sheltered enough by the foliage that Ani didn't think she'd be seen, and it allowed her to lazily dangle her feet over the edge, kicking the air to pass the time. (Y/N) simply sat down with her back to the trunk, eyes peeled over at the entrance to the hole he'd crawled into. Whereas she was guessing his gender before, she knew now, and she would do as Ani and refer to him as an 'it.' She didn't like to dehumanize things like that; it wasn't her way.

He came out slowly, like a fawn emerging for the first time, his eyes eagerly taking in his surroundings. She watched him with blatant curiosity, feeling the horror of the situation sinking deep into her gut. She had been right. _She had been right._

"Maybe he's from one of the Sections," Ani whispered down at her, trying to make sense of the situation, "Maybe he got out."

"He doesn't have a code, Ani." (Y/N) said simply, sighing. "Everyone inside the walls has a barcode."

"Holy shit."

"I know."

"We need to report-"

(Y/N) didn't let her finish. She stepped out, knife in hand, and quietly made her way towards him. He didn't notice her at first; he was too busy looking in the direction they'd come, clearly trying to make sense of where they'd gone. She was about ten feet from him, knife gripped defensively in her right fist, when a branch snapped under her foot.

He let out some sort of shout, turning around faster than she imagined humanly possible. He had his hands up, eyes already on the knife she clutched at her side, his mouth hanging open. She didn't like the look of fear on his face, knowing it stemmed from her. Slowly, (Y/N) raised her hand, making sure his eyes followed the knife. They did, as she'd expected, and with a short, gentle motion, she put it on the ground.

He seemed shocked at first, his eyes traveling warily between her and her fallen weapon, as if waiting for her to snatch it and toss it at his face. She didn't, though, merely stood there staring at him, a kind smile on her lips.

"Hi," She said, testing out the waters. He looked confused, so she waved, repeating the word. "Hi."

He made a sound, a look of recognition crossing his face. "Hey!" He said, seemingly excited by this discovery. He waved back, and it was then that she knew he was greeting her, as well. Though she didn't understand his language, and he definitely didn't grasp hers, (Y/N) thought she may be able to bridge the gap a little.

He was grinning from ear to ear. "Hey," he said again, letting out a breath of air. "Hi!"


End file.
